Conflict Transformation Program

You can read more about the overarching initiative or listen to a Vermont Public radio interview with former Middlebury President Laurie L. Patton.

The Schools Abroad are working to further the goals of Global Literacy within the Middlebury community and beyond. We have multiple projects related to and funded through this initiative with international staff and partners continuing to develop more opportunities. 

Middlebury has 16 Schools worldwide across 32 sites where undergraduates from Middlebury and other US colleges and universities study, as well as graduate students in some of our locations.  Many of our programs are fully embedded within the curriculum and students study in the host country language. Through language education and immersive learning, our students are challenged to transcend their own knowledge and habits. The skills of intercultural communication and curious listening help our students positively contribute to the conflicts they encounter around the world.   

Through research and instruction, these projects provide participants with an understanding of the root causes and social structures that lead to conflict, and the skills to reshape the dynamics behind it to strengthen civil society. Students at all levels have the opportunity to become skilled at transforming conflict by crossing intellectual, cultural, and geographical borders.

2024 Projects

Argentina

In the Spring and Fall of 2024, students from the School in Argentina traveled to Neuquén, Argentina to learn about conflicts between the oil industry and indigenous communities over land, water, and traditional agriculture. While visiting the Mapuche community of Lof in Patagonia, students learned about local production cycles and efforts by smallholder farmers to survive amidst emerging large commodity exporters in the region. Students traveled to a traditional Mapuche farm near the Vaca Muerta’s oil field to observe and discuss possible paths towards conflict resolution with local Mapuche activists, and to the site of Detention, Torture, and Disappearing at the former School of Navy Mechanics, where they learned about state-sponsored terrorism from a local NGO. As in previous semesters, this excursion exposed students to interests, needs, and positions of local actors and to conflicts not commonly seen in their host cities nor taught in general university classes. Click here for information on CT projects from previous semesters. 

Cameroon

In the Spring of 2024, the Middlebury School in Cameroon offered its first CT course entitled The Roles and Experiences of Women in Transforming Conflict in Post-Colonial Cameroon. This course explored the role of Cameroonian women as changemakers. Using the case study of internally displaced women from the ongoing conflict in the Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon, students identified and analyzed transformative approaches to political conflicts and then learned from women changemakers and their community-based efforts to transform those conflicts. Conflict was discussed across numerous themes including environment, education, food and water, the economy, displacement, and public health. Through academic writings on CT and field-based experiences with local and international NGOs, students observed, learned, and described how women negotiate freedom, re-integration, stability and reemergence for themselves, their families, and their communities in periods of conflict. 

Also in Spring 2024, two students at the School in Cameroon joined the Center for Gender, Peace and Security as Junior Researchers. School in Cameroon Professor Fofack led students on a semester-long investigation of gender representation in local media, monitoring media outlets, and exploring newspaper and magazine archives. The students applied their French language skills to a semi-professional setting and gained a nuanced understanding of the Cameroonian social, political, and cultural environment. 

In the Fall of 2024, students at the School in Cameroon participated in a class entitled “Intercultural Theories and Practice” where they learned theories of intercultural communication (ICC), practiced through group excursions, and reflected on their experiences. One ICC theory crucial to the course was the cultural adjustment W curve, which can help students frame shifting cultural understandings and interactions with their host community. Through lectures, class discussions, written reflective papers, and community experiences, students became more aware of the inter and intrapersonal conflicts that arise in new cultural environments. They then developed strategies for negotiating respectful and meaningful cultural integration, which included identifying conflicts, looking to peers for support, drawing context from ethnographic interviews, and practicing deep observation. As a result of the course, students gained confidence during their time abroad, understanding of their host culture, the ability to further their immersion, and the tools to transform intercultural conflicts into personal growth and deeper relationships.

France

Two CT courses were offered again in the Spring of 2024: Taking to the Streets: Revolts and Social Movements in France and The EU, an Unprecedented Experiment in the Socialization of Conflicts. Students in the Taking to the Streets: Revolts and Social Movements in France course learned about the history and role of social and political conflict in France while also gaining a foundation in conflict transformation. Students analyzed actors in conflict, the root causes of conflict, the role of conflict in shaping French governance, and instances of transformative conflict. Students taking the The EU, an Unprecedented Experiment in the Socialization of Conflicts course analyzed the EU through the lens of conflict transformation, learning about the institutionalization of conflict management, deliberation, and dialogue at both the national and regional level. Through lectures, discussions, and written assignments, students grappled with the challenges involved in managing, resolving, and transforming conflict within the EU, which represents a large and diverse body of countries/parties, whose interests, positions, languages, and cultures vary greatly. The course included a guided tour of the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

EUSA is an educational organization that works with the School in France to place and guide students through faculty-led, intercultural, and linguistically immersive internship programs in Paris. In Fall 2024, Middlebury worked with EUSA to integrate CT into their curriculum so that students could harness the conflict inherent to intercultural, intergenerational workplace relationships as a tool for deeper self-understanding, more effective working relationships, and stronger intercultural communication. Students participating in an EUSA internship learned basic concepts in a CT-informed EUSA orientation, practiced transformative approaches by applying the CT framework to workplace conflicts, reflected on their engagement with conflict in weekly reflections, and planned for future CT development in a final report.

Jordan

In Spring 2024, the School in Jordan offered the CT course Reshaping Perspectives: Conflict Transformation in the Palestinian-Israeli Context. The course focused on applying the theoretical lens of CT to the storied and complex history of the Israeli-Palestine conflict. Given that 53% of Jordan’s population is of Palestinian origin, students had the unique opportunity to study this conflict within the cultural context of an Arab country in the Middle East. This was achieved by helping them develop their skills to engage with conflict constructively, including patient listening, critically reviewing opposing viewpoints, and appreciating the diversity of narratives surrounding complex conflicts. Students explored the role of language in conflict and discussed the ethics of evaluating this particular conflict in a classroom setting.

From June to August, 2024, the Middlebury School in Jordan hosted an intern to work with Squash Dreamers (SD). SD is a nonprofit that provides refugee and underprivileged girls in Amman with professional squash training and academic support. The School in Jordan has long partnered with SD as a volunteer opportunity for students abroad. The intern met with a group of girls (aged 13 to 17 years) several times per week, organizing and implementing educational and enrichment activities during SD’s intensive summer programming. The educational component aimed to develop the girls’ English, critical thinking, and life skills. In addition to interview training and debates, the intern conducted several simulation-based experiments that focused on conflict transformation. In addition to the work at SD, the intern had weekly readings and meetings with the director of the School in Jordan to reflect on his experiences and connect what he learned about himself to the local and regional contexts through the lens of CT. 

Morocco

In Spring 2024, three students at the School in Morocco worked as research assistants under the guidance of Professor Hassan Belhiah. Their independently conducted research projects covered the theme of cultural-linguistic landscapes in modern Morocco. One student focused on the modern reintegration movements of Moroccan Jews, looking at the historical roles of this religious minority and dispelling antisemitic misconceptions promulgated by the Moroccan government. Another explored the marginalization of language and culture as factors influencing economic disparities, drawing on historical analysis of Arab conflicts past and present to identify how language and conflict interact. The third student analyzed US Government-sponsored Arabic language programs in Morocco as an example of language education in conflict transformation. Through statistical analysis, historical research, and first-hand accounts students immersed themselves in Morocco’s history. Their research showed how language can serve as both an instigator and a tool for transformation in conflicts both past and present.

United Kingdom

In Spring 2024, The Middlebury-CMRS Oxford Humanities Program (M-CMRS) held a CT symposium entitled “The Northern Ireland Peace Process and What Can Be Learned From It.” The symposium was held at Keble College, Oxford, and the event was open to M-CMRS as well Keble’s students, faculty, and staff. Three speakers, including Professor Ian McBride, Foster Professor of Irish History at the University of Oxford; Lord John Alderdice, the former leader of the Alliance Party in Northern Ireland; and Sir Jonathan Phillips, who has been both Warden of Keble College and Permanent Secretary of the UK’s Northern Ireland Office, spoke on the Northern Ireland peace process. Speakers and students engaged in discussions that considered if and how the lessons of the Northern Ireland peace process could be regarded as applicable to other conflicts. 

Uruguay

In the Spring and Fall of 2024, Students at the School in Uruguay worked with the non-profit organization Redalco which addresses unequal food distribution, recovering discarded food and redistributing to disadvantaged communities in Montevideo. Middlebury students observed Redalco’s recovery of crops that do not meet market standards, learned about market criteria, consumer culture, food waste, and asymmetrical distribution. Then, students visited a Redalco beneficiary site in the Montevideo suburbs. Student participation in Redalco’s operations for redistribution of food to disadvantaged sectors of Montevideo has become a traditional component of the School in Uruguay’s Writing and Culture course, allowing them to deepen their immersion by directly observing the social tensions they study in the classroom. Click here for information on CT projects from previous semesters. 

Spain

In Spring and Fall 2024, students attending the School in Spain participated in an orientation activity related to the recovery of historical memory in Spain. “Stolpersteine: aquí vivió” invited students to learn about a chapter of Spanish history often forgotten, overlooked, or even contested by Spanish society: the thousands of Spaniards deported to Nazi concentration camps following the Spanish Civil War. Students reflected on the restorative nature of history reclamation and discussed how best to repair the harm done to Spain’s Jewish populations. After the tour, students met in groups with orientation assistants and participated in a guided discussion.

Chile

In the Fall of 2024, a CT-funded research project brought together six students (2 from the Middlebury School in Chile and 4 local students from the Universidad de la Frontera) to address socio-ecological conflicts at the Ramsar site in Monkul, in the Araucanía Region of Chile. Middlebury and Chilean students carried out research on the Mapuche community Mateo Nahuelpan, investigating the value of biocultural memory related to wetlands and identifying and analyzing socio-ecological conflicts from this community’s perspective. Their analysis proposed strategies for transforming present and future conflicts related to land management. Students engaged in individual and group reflections that deepened their understanding of conflict transformation processes and connected theory with practice. Activities included theoretical readings, conflict mapping, interviews with key informants, and a community presentation of findings. Project outputs included written reflections on the relationship between theory and practice, a report with analysis and research findings, and possible future strategies for biocultural conservation. This project not only strengthened conflict transformation skills but also fostered an interdisciplinary and intercultural understanding of socio-ecological conflicts, highlighting the importance of integrating biocultural memory into conservation strategies and encouraging dialogue between local communities and students.

Kazakhstan

In Fall 2024, the Middlebury Russian Program in Kazakhstan had its first CT project, “Negotiating Identity in Kazakhstan: Transforming Conflict,” led by Professor Caress Schenk from the Political Science and International Relations department at Nazarbayev University in Astana. Two students from the Middlebury Program  participated in this research project alongside two Kazakhstani post-graduate research assistants and 6 volunteer/course-based local students. The primary goal of this project was to explore the social diversity that exists in Kazakhstan, which stands in opposition to official and traditional rhetoric that insists on flattened categories of ethnicity, language repertoire, and gender identity. Students were engaged in theoretical learning, including CT readings, academic discussions, and required reflections. Students presented research results that identified and outlined potential paths for transforming conflict related to gender norms and domestic violence in Kazakhstani society.

Taiwan

In November 2024, the Middlebury in Taiwan program hosted a one-day retreat with 11 students focused on cross-cultural conflicts between Chinese and Western cultural norms. Through guided meditation, emotional observation, and a closing sharing circle, students developed self-awareness and empathy, exploring how internal responses shape their approaches to conflicts. As a culminating activity, students created reflective works, including personal letters and strategies to address cross-cultural and internal conflicts. These activities equipped students to navigate and transform cultural tensions during their study abroad experience.